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A new study published recently in Psychological Science suggests that not getting enough sleep may increase the likelihood of forming false memories.

The study was conducted by psychological scientist Steven J. Frenda of the University of California, Irvine and colleagues. Results show sleep-deprived people who viewed photos of a crime being committed and then read false information about the photos were more likely to report remembering the false details in the photos than were those who got a full night’s sleep.
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A new study finds that the less older adults sleep, the faster their brains age.

Results show that each hour of reduced sleep duration changed the annual expansion rate of the ventricles by 0.59 percent. Ventricles are the internal chambers of the brain. Their expansion is a reliable marker for the risk of cognitive impairment. The study also found that reduced sleep sped up the annual decline rate in cognitive performance by 0.67 percent.
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Slow oscillations in brain activity, which occur during so-called slow-wave sleep, are critical for retaining memories. Researchers reporting online April 11 in the journal Neuron have found that playing sounds synchronized to the rhythm of the slow brain oscillations of people who are sleeping enhances these oscillations and boosts their memory. This demonstrates an easy and noninvasive way to influence human brain activity to improve sleep and enhance memory.

"The beauty lies in the simplicity to apply auditory stimulation at low intensities—an approach that is both practical and ethical, if compared for example with electrical stimulation—and therefore portrays a straightforward tool for clinical settings to enhance sleep rhythms," says coauthor Dr. Jan Born, of the University of Tübingen, in Germany.
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The strongest predictor of whether a man is developing dementia with Lewy bodies — the second most common form of dementia in the elderly — is whether he acts out his dreams while sleeping, Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered. Patients are five times more likely to have dementia with Lewy bodies if they experience a condition known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, a parasomnia, than if they have one of the risk factors now used to make a diagnosis, such as fluctuating cognition or hallucinations, the study found.

"While it is, of course, true that not everyone who has this sleep disorder develops dementia with Lewy bodies, as many as 75 to 80 percent of men with dementia with Lewy bodies in our Mayo database did experience REM sleep behavior disorder. So it is a very powerful marker for the disease," says lead investigator Melissa Murray, PhD, a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
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Sleep plays an important role in the brain’s ability to consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day, new research at the University of Chicago finds.

Other studies have shown that sleep consolidates learning for a new task. The new study, which measured starlings’ ability to recognize new songs, shows that learning a second task can undermine the performance of a previously learned task. But this study is the first to show that a good night’s sleep helps the brain retain both new memories.
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Three myths about sleepwalking – sleepwalkers have no memory of their actions, sleepwalkers' behavior is without motivation, and sleepwalking has no daytime impact – are dispelled in a recent study led by Antonio Zadra of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Sacré-Coeur Hospital. The study was published in the March issue of The Lancet Neurology. Dr. Zadra answers some questions to try to clear up some of the confusion about sleepwalking.
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Normally the Sleep Education Blog reports on the numerous physical and mental health problems caused by sleep deprivation. In this one case, sleep deprivation may actually have a benefit. If you don’t sleep after a traumatic event, you may avoid developing PTSD or other anxiety disorders, a recent study reports.
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